Safety Pilot

Excursions bring to mind a fun-filled family outing, but in the aviation world, excursions are something to avoid. By now, everyone knows or should know about the runway incursion problem, and the focus is now expanding to include runway excursions as well.

Where to draw the safety line in GA will always be debated because opinions and operations are so varied. There are pilots in our system who shouldn’t be flying and some who never should have been certificated in the first place—as in all other personal activities. How to fairly identify and remove them on a consistent basis is a vexing problem. The Air Safety Institute has more than 30 free online courses, publishes a quiz every other week, and offers about 200 free live seminars annually. What more should we do? Are you convinced that the government can make GA much safer than it already is, without a significant reduction in your freedom to fly? That’s really up to us, as pilots in command. So the next time someone tosses off the GA/airline safety stats for shock value, ask them if they equate the high banks of Daytona with the supermarket parking lot.

Do the current FAA Practical Test Standards (PTS) measure what’s needed in today’s flight environment? I have a standing wager that no one has yet taken: If all pilots merely flew to the current private pilot PTS just as they are written today, the number of accidents would plummet—no need for further “tinkering.” See if you agree.

Some accidents aren’t really accidents, since the definition of “accident” includes the adjectives “unforeseen” or “unexpected.” Here is a rare FAA overindulgence to tolerate those who don’t measure up. The pilot’s history is punctuated by an incredible series of miscues and mishaps by one who was, shall we say, financially gifted but aeronautically challenged.

In a recent Air Safety eJournal, my mostly weekly blog, I cited a study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety touting the benefits of red light cameras. The Washington Post noted that traffic fatalities were down 26 percent over a five-year period in D.C., significantly more than cities that didn’t employ such enforcement.

There’s plenty of aviation darkness to curse today. Aircraft sales and the pilot population are spiraling downward, manufacturing is migrating offshore, professional flying is not perceived as the glamour job it once was, and costs are up.

There is a myth among many in aviation and education that advanced math is essential to fly with any degree of safety and skill. Unfortunately, my father did not pass along his genetic gift for advanced mathematics, but that was little detriment to my becoming a pilot.

Just in case you slept through high-school Latin, a non sequitur is a thought that does not logically follow what has just been said. A recent law passed by Congress, House Rule 5900, mandates that the FAA require new pilots hired by the airlines to have at least 1,500 hours total flight time and an ATP certificate.